A combined serum and balm featuring hirulup, delivers powerful hydration and collagen-boosting properties, infused with peppermint oil, wild mint, and beeswax, to plump and condition lips.
Uploaded by: monsooncat on
Ingredients overview
Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2, Hydrogenated Polydecene, Cera Microcristallina, Isohexadecane, Mentha Arvensis Oil, Cera Alba, Zinc Oxide, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylene/Propylene/Styrene Copolymer, Butylene/Ethylene/Styrene Copolymer, Mentha Piperita Oil, Sodium Hyaluronate, Xanthan Gum, Tripeptide-1, Limonene
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Highlights
#alcohol-free
Alcohol Free
Key Ingredients
Cell-communicating ingredient: Tripeptide-1
Skin-identical ingredient: Sodium Hyaluronate
Sunscreen: Zinc Oxide
Other Ingredients
Emollient: Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2, Hydrogenated Polydecene, Isohexadecane, Cera Alba, Caprylyl Glycol
Emulsifying: Cera Alba
Moisturizer/humectant: Caprylyl Glycol, Sodium Hyaluronate
Perfuming: Hydrogenated Polydecene, Cera Alba, Mentha Piperita Oil, Limonene
Preservative: Phenoxyethanol
Solvent: Hydrogenated Polydecene, Isohexadecane, Limonene
Viscosity controlling: Cera Microcristallina, Cera Alba, Ethylene/Propylene/Styrene Copolymer, Butylene/Ethylene/Styrene Copolymer, Xanthan Gum
Skim through
| Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2 | emollient | ||
| Hydrogenated Polydecene | emollient, perfuming, solvent | ||
| Cera Microcristallina | viscosity controlling | ||
| Isohexadecane | emollient, solvent | ||
| Mentha Arvensis Oil | |||
| Cera Alba | emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsifying, perfuming | 0, 0-2 | |
| Zinc Oxide | sunscreen | 0, 1 | goodie |
| Phenoxyethanol | preservative | ||
| Caprylyl Glycol | moisturizer/humectant, emollient | ||
| Ethylene/Propylene/Styrene Copolymer | viscosity controlling | ||
| Butylene/Ethylene/Styrene Copolymer | viscosity controlling | ||
| Mentha Piperita Oil | perfuming | icky | |
| Sodium Hyaluronate | skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | 0, 0 | goodie |
| Xanthan Gum | viscosity controlling | ||
| Tripeptide-1 | cell-communicating ingredient | goodie | |
| Limonene | perfuming, solvent | icky |
Alpha-H Absolute Lip Perfector
Ingredients explainedBis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2
What-it-does: emollient
A thick, paste-like emollient ester that is touted as a vegetable-derived lanolin alternative. It has a smooth spreadability and touch, and itgives a substantive film to protect and moisturize the skin.
Hydrogenated Polydecene
Also-called: Alphaflow | What-it-does: emollient, perfuming, solvent
A hydrocarbon-based emollient that can come in different viscosities from silky-light through satiny-smooth to luxurious, rich. It forms anon-occlusive film on the surface of the skin and brings gloss without greasiness to the formula. It's a very pure and hypoallergenic emollient that's also ideal forbaby care products.
Cera Microcristallina
What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Isohexadecane
What-it-does: emollient, solvent
A light, velvety, unique skin feel liquid that is a good solvent and also makes the skin feel nice and smooth (aka emollient). It's often used in makeup products mixed with silicones to give shine and slip to the product. It's also great forcleansing dirt and oil from the skin as well as for taking off make-up.
Mentha Arvensis Oil
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Cera Alba
Also-called: Beeswax | What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsifying, perfuming | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0-2
It's the yellow, solid stuff that you probably know from beeswax candles. It's a natural material produced by honey bees to build their honeycomb.
As for skincare, it's used as an emollient and thickening agent. It's super common in lip balms and lipsticks.
Zinc Oxide - goodie
What-it-does: sunscreen | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1
When it comes to sunscreen agents, Zinc Oxide ispretty much in aleague of its own. It's a physical (or inorganic) sunscreenthat has a lot in common with fellow inorganic sunscreen Titanium Dioxide(TiO2) but a couple of things make it superior even toTiO2.
If physical sunscreensdon't tell you anything, go ahead and read about the basics here. Most of what we wrote about Titanium Dioxideis also true for Zinc Oxide so we will focus here on the differences.
The first main difference is that while TiO2 gives a nice broad spectrum protection, Zinc Oxide has an even nicerand even broader spectrum protection. It protects against UVB, UVA II, and UVA I almost uniformly, and is considered to be the broadestrange sunscreen available today.
It'salso highly stableand non-irritating. So much sothat Zinc Oxide also counts as a skin protectant and anti-irritant. It's also often used to treat skin irritationssuch as diaper rash.
As for the disadvantages, Zinc Oxide is also not cosmetically elegant. Itleaves a disturbing whitish tint on the skin, although, according toa2000research paper by Dr. Pinnell, it's slightlyless white than TiO2. Still, it's white and disturbing enough to use Zinc Oxide nanoparticles more and more often.
We wrote more about nanoparticles and the concerns around them here, but the gist is that if nanoparticles were absorbed into the skin that would be a reason for legitimate health concerns. But luckily, so far research shows thatsunscreen nanoparticles are not absorbedbut remain on the surface of the skin or in the uppermost (dead) layer of the skin. This seems to be true even if the skin is damaged, for example, sunburnt.
All in all, if you've found a Zinc Oxide sunscreen that you are happy to use every single day, that's fantastic and we suggest you stick with it. It's definitely one of the best, or probably even the best option out there for sun protection available worldwide.
Phenoxyethanol
What-it-does: preservative
It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.
It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.
Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).
It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
Caprylyl Glycol
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant, emollient, deodorant
It’s a handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel. At the same time, it also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives, such as the nowadays super commonly used phenoxyethanol.
The blend of these two (caprylyl glycol + phenoxyethanol) is called Optiphen, which not only helps to keep your cosmetics free from nasty things for a long time but also gives a good feel to the finished product. It's a popular duo.
Ethylene/Propylene/Styrene Copolymer
What-it-does: viscosity controlling
A helper ingredient that's used as an oilgelling agent together with its sibling,Butylene/Ethylene/Styrene Copolymer.
These two together can be combined with different types of hydrocarbons (e.g. mineral oil or different emollient esters) to form gels with different sensorial and physical properties. The resulted hydrocarbon gels can improveskin occlusivity (and reduce trans-epidermal water loss) and they are also excellent to form suspensions.
Butylene/Ethylene/Styrene Copolymer
What-it-does: viscosity controlling
A helper ingredient that's used as a gelling agent together with a hydrocarbon and its sibling,Ethylene/Propylene/Styrene Copolymer. Read more there.
Mentha Piperita Oil - icky
Also-called: Peppermint Oil | What-it-does: perfuming
The essential oil coming from steam distillation of freshlyharvested, flowering peppermint sprigs. Its major component is mentholthat gives the oil its well-known refreshing and cooling properties. Peppermint oil is traditionally used as an inhalant for cold and coughs and there is also some clinical data validating its use against headaches by rubbing a peppermint oil cream on the forehead.
As for skincare, other than the nice grassy-minty smell and the refreshing sensations, we cannot write good things. It can be a skin irritant, so much so that it is a well-known counterirritant for muscle pains creating mild surface irritation to make things better in the deeper layers. But for everyday skincare, counterirritation is not something you wanna do, so we think that peppermint oil is better to avoid, especially if your skin is sensitive.
Sodium Hyaluronate - goodie
What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
It’s the - sodium form - cousin of the famous NMF,hyaluronic acid(HA). If HA does not tell you anything we have a super detailed, geeky explanation about it here. The TL; DR version of HA is that it's a huge polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) found in the skin that acts as a sponge helping the skin to hold onto water, being plump and elastic. HA is famous for its crazy water holding capacity as it can bind up to 1000 times its own weight in water.
As far as skincare goes, sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid are pretty much the same and the two names are used interchangeably. As cosmetic chemist kindofstephenwrites on reddit "sodium hyaluronate disassociates into hyaluronic acid molecule and a sodium atom in solution".
In spite of this, if you search for "hyaluronic acid vs sodium hyaluronate" you will find on multiple places that sodium hyaluronate is smaller and can penetrate the skin better. Chemically, this is definitely not true, as the two forms are almost the same, both are polymers and the subunits can be repeated in both forms as much as you like. (We also checkedProspector for sodium hyaluronate versions actually used in cosmetic products and found that the most common molecular weight was 1.5-1.8 million Da that absolutely counts as high molecular weight).
What seems to be a true difference, though, is that the salt form is more stable, easier to formulate andcheaper so it pops up more often on the ingredient lists.
If you wanna become a real HA-and-the-skin expert you can read way more about the topic at hyaluronic acid(including penetration-questions, differences between high and low molecular weight versions and a bunch of references to scientific literature).
Xanthan Gum
What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising
It's one of the most commonly used thickeners and emulsion stabilizers. If the product is too runny, a little xanthan gum will make it more gel-like.Used alone, it can make the formula sticky and it is a good team player so it is usually combined with other thickeners and so-calledrheology modifiers (helper ingredients that adjust the flow and thus the feel of the formula). The typical use level of Xantha Gum is below 1%, it is usually in the 0.1-0.5% range.
Btw, Xanthan gum is all natural, a chain of sugar molecules (polysaccharide) produced from individual sugar molecules (glucose and sucrose) via fermentation. It’s approved by Ecocert and also used in the food industry(E415).
Tripeptide-1 - goodie
Also-called: GHK, Kollaren | What-it-does: cell-communicating ingredient
A small, three amino acid (glycine-histidine-lysine or GHK) peptide that is famous for being atype I collagen fragment. The theory behind collagen-fragment peptides isthat when collagen naturally breaks down in the skin, the resulting peptide fragments signal to the skin that it should get to work and create some nice, new collagen.
Adding in collagen fragment peptides, like GHK, might trick the skin into thinking that collagen has broken down and it's time to create some more. So Tripeptide-1 is believed to be able to stimulate collagen production in the skin, and more collagen means fewer wrinkles and younger looking skin. FYI; Tripeptide-1 is the same peptide that can be found in the famous Matrixyl 3000, but in Matrixyl a palmitic acid is attached to it to increase its oil solubility and thus skin penetration.
Another reason whyTripeptide-1 is especiallyfamousis that it is not only a signal peptidebut also a so-called carrier peptide thathelps to stabilize and deliver copperin the skin. It has a high affinity for copper ions and likes to form a complex with them called Copper-Tripeptide-1 or GHK-Cu. GHK-Cu is a famous andwell-researched peptide that does a bunch of things in the skin and we have a shiny explanationabout it here.
As for Tripeptide-1 in and of itself, without a palmitic acid or copper attached to it, it goes by the trade name Kollaren and according to the manufacturer, it not only stimulates collagen but also other essentialskin proteins such asfibronectin, elastin, and laminin. Kollaren is also claimed to be beneficial for acne-prone skin as it can boost tissue repair and thus help acne scars to heal faster.
Limonene - icky
What-it-does: perfuming, solvent, deodorant
A supercommon and cheap fragrance ingredient. It's in many plants, e.g. rosemary, eucalyptus, lavender, lemongrass, peppermint and it's the main component (about 50-90%) of the peel oil of citrus fruits.
It does smellnice but the problemis that it oxidizes on air exposure and the resulting stuff is not good for the skin. Oxidizedlimonene cancause allergic contact dermatitis and counts asa frequent skin sensitizer.
Limonene's nr1 function is definitely being a fragrance component, but there are several studies showing that it's also a penetration enhancer, mainly for oil-loving components.
All in all, limonene has some pros and cons, but - especially if your skin is sensitive -the cons probably outweigh the pros.
You may also want to take a look at...
A thick, paste-like emollient ester that works as a vegetable derived lanolin alternative. [more] A hydrocarbon-based emollient that can come in different viscosities from silky-light to luxurious, rich. It forms anon-occlusive film on the surface of the skin. [more] A light, velvety, unique skin feel liquid that is a good solvent and also makes the skin feel nice and smooth. [more] The yellow solid stuff produced by honey bees to build their honeycomb. As for skincare, it's used as an emollient and thickening agent. [more] A physical/inorganic sunscreen with the broadest spectrum (UVB and UVA II, less good at UVA I) protection available today. It also has good stability and also works as a skin protectant, anti-irritant. Might leave some whitish tint on the skin, though. [more] Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide. [more] A handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel and also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives. [more] A helper ingredient that's used as an oil gelling agent. [more] A helper ingredient that's used as a gelling agent. [more] The essential oil coming from steam distillation of freshlyharvested, flowering peppermint sprigs. Its major component is mentholthat gives the oil its well-known refreshing and cooling properties. [more] It's the salt form of famous humectant and natural moisturizing factor, hyaluronic acid. It can bind huge amounts of water and it's pretty much the current IT-moisturizer. [more] A super commonly used thickener and emulsion stabilizer. [more] A small, three amino acid (glycine-histidine-lysine or GHK) peptide that is famous for being atype I collagen fragment. The theory behind collagen-fragment peptides isthat when collagen naturally breaks down in the skin, the resulting peptide fragments signal to the skin that it should get to work and create some nice, new collagen. [more] A supercommon fragrance ingredient found naturally in many plants including citrus peel oils, rosemary or lavender. It autoxidizes on air exposure and counts as a common skin sensitizer. [more] what‑it‑does emollient what‑it‑does emollient | perfuming | solvent what‑it‑does viscosity controlling what‑it‑does emollient | solvent what‑it‑does emollient | viscosity controlling | emulsifying | perfuming irritancy,com. 0, 0-2 what‑it‑does sunscreen irritancy,com. 0, 1 what‑it‑does preservative what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant | emollient what‑it‑does viscosity controlling what‑it‑does viscosity controlling what‑it‑does perfuming what‑it‑does skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does viscosity controlling what‑it‑does cell-communicating ingredient what‑it‑does perfuming | solvent
